For new designers the allure of the glamours, the champagne, the creativity etc. that seemingly will be in store for you is quickly dashed by the realities of development and production. Fabric misbehaves. Minimum yardage isn’t met. The sweep doesn’t fit on the cuttable width.. should we add a seam? Why is this fabric roll different than that fabric roll. UGH.
My best advice to all new designers is to act like a seasoned one… meaning… roll with the punches. Yes, they sting but there are limitations to your visions. It’s called reality. Fabrics fight with each other. Bias ripples. Bias stretches, Zippers are too heavy for fabric choice. Don’t fight with science. And you are NOT going to reinvent the wheel (no matter how brilliant you are, darling).
One of my favorite stories is when I had a young intern who a very green new designer client hired to production manage. The intern came to me with his brilliant idea… “we are going to print the pattern pieces directly on the fabric so we don’t have to pay for a marker”. (they had a custom printed fabric) NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! fabric moves and the pattern pieces will be un sewable. PLUS you will never be able to ply out the fabric for production. “No” he insisted.. “this is brilliant”. What happened? The fabric was totally unusable. The pattern pieces were skewed and we couldn’t sew them together. Two green people not believing the advice of experts.
The lesson- if you hire an expert trust that they know what they are doing. You can’t compete with a combined 99 years of experience from a team who day in and day out trouble shoots problems. Also, if you make luxury items sew them with a team who are experts. Don’t put your 70 dollar a yard fabric in a factory that sews contemporary. You will be sorry. And so will your budget.